Iraq Report Pokes Holes in Cheney’s Script

Posted on Apr 6, 2007

Exhibiting either extreme administrative loyalty or just plain denial, Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated that there was a definite link between al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show Thursday—the same day a newly released Defense Department report cast further doubt on that connection.

Washington Post:

Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides “all confirmed” that Hussein’s regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released [Thursday].

The declassified version of the report, by acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community’s prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda figures had only limited contacts, and about its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary form in February.